Rector Lenar Safin’s address on Victory Day 2024

Dear veterans and home front workers! Dear staff, teachers and students of Kazan University!

I wholeheartedly congratulate you on the main and truly great holiday for our country – Victory Day!

May 9 is a sacred date for all of us, the way to which our multinational people overcame during long and difficult days filled with grief and deprivation. And there is not a single family in Russia not affected by this terrible war. That is why the victory, which was delivered to us at such a high cost, has forever become a symbol of national courage and unity.

We bow before the feat of Soviet soldiers and honor the bright memory of heroes – our fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers who returned from the war and remained on the battlefields, days and nights of hard work on the home front and siege survivors of Leningrad. They defended our right to life and independence, and we will never forget those who forged this Great Victory!

Kazan University also made its contribution to approaching the desired day. Despite the hard times, it continued to train students, conducted scientific research – much of which was catering to the needs of the front. Time demanded fortitude and courage, heroism of scientists, teachers and students. A significant part of students and teaching staff stood up in defense of the Motherland in the first months of the war. Unfortunately, not all of them returned to peaceful life and to their families. Our generation owes them an unpayable debt …

Today, the experience of the Patriotic War teaches us to accept our past as a single cultural heritage, the basis of national identity, which should be carefully preserved and passed on to our descendants without blemish.

Eternal memory and glory to the heroes! Happy 79th anniversary of our Great Victory!

May this holiday fill your hearts with light! I wish the war veterans and home front workers strong health, happiness, longevity, and the university staff success, prosperity and peaceful sky above their heads!